Da Booga

Had the car for a year now and to be honest lost a bit of the bug but after winter the bug is back!! Managed to make space in my factory so I can work undercover, a lot easier than working on the drive!!

The idea is to basically get the car ready for its MOT on 19th May!! Needs a new gearbox and the engine to be tuned as it runs like a bag of crap!!

Please bear one thing in mind as I keep posting my exploits, i'm an accountant by trade so car mechanics isn't my strong point! The idea with the Sierra is to help me get some hands-on experience with modifying cars. If anyone has any tips, ideas or ways that I could do things better please just add to the topic as i'm open to tutoring LOL. The other thing is that i'm currently also funding the business in the factory and getting married in August so funds are virtually non-existant so i've got to try and do things as cheap as possible until after the wedding at least!!

Piccies of the car as it was on my drive before being taken to the factory







How it looked Saturday morning at the factory




1st Things 1st I needed a work bench and somewhere to store my tools so they were to hand, the identified spot


Workbench knocked up from a bit of spare wood that happened to be lying about the factory


Next, a set of shelves to keep the bench clear of tools


After that I started on the car, I need to spray the front bumper & grill, i've also got a pair of twin lense cossie headlamps on the way so the front end was stripped


My helper watching the precedings


Managed to get the gearbox out on Monday with 2 mates, Baz & Ian, upon opening the gearbox it was found to be empty of oil which probably explained the nasty noises eminating from it when driving!!


Eventually got the Rover V8 to Ford gearbox bellhousing off after a bit of a struggle, only to find this written on the side


Still struggling with the adapter plate that is still connected to the old gearbox, it appears that whoever last attached it to the gearbox decided to make it permanent by welding the securing bolts to the gearbox housing

Going to get an angle grinder to remove the bolts over the weekend.

How the beast looked on Monday afternoon


Managed to get a bit more done tonight though. I've also never done any spraying so prepared the front grill and applied 4 coats of primer


Actually impressed myself with the result Will see what it looks like in a few days time after the paint and lacquer have been applied

Mr RS500

iTrader: (6)

Hi Mate ,

Glad your starting to get it up and running

Is that workshop big enough ???

Your helper ( the dog ,) looks a little board

Paul

ps, keep the updates coming

Stavros

Cool, thas a big ass workshop there

Im dying to do a V8 sierra, but with the 302 windsor rather than rover anchor.

Jus need time to get on with it...

Da Booga

Thanks guys, trust me if it was up to me and Baz the factory unit would be full of cars.

Baz has already asked if he can put a 4 poster ramp in there I would be up for it but don't think my business partner would be too impressed

That's Harvey's (the dog) happy face too!!

BTW Paul, you've got a PM as i'm looking to be really cheeky LOL

Phil

iTrader: (1)

Bloody hell, do you do any work in that factory? It's empty

Da Booga

Do you know how much it would cost to buy enough wood to fill it!! There is actually a fair bit of wood there it just doesn't look it because of the size of the unit. It will be fuller on the next lot of photos as i've got 2 artic loads of timber being delivered today too!!

The other side of the factory is the main side anyway, that's got all of the machinery set-up. We actually got the factory really cheap and to get something of a similar size elsewhere round here would cost over twice as much!!

Besides I don't actually do much work there anyway, I just sit in the office and watch the staff working That's tiring enough!!

ricky_3dr

Good work

_DAN_

Fucking awesome mate

Da Booga

Managed to get a bit more done over the weekend in between jobs for clients.

Had a bit of a result with the gearbox, got it from a ford breakers in Hull who said it had come from an early Sierra 1.6 however it has the longer input shaft which, as far as I can work out from the little info floating around the net, should mean it's a slightly stronger 'box originally from a V6 Sierra/Capri. Only cost £50, i've seen the boxes go for V6's for well over £100 on Ebay!!


New box on right, you can clearly see the longer main shaft.


Just need to hope now that the engine will still be able to take the longer shaft. Only one way to find out though so will only know when we come to fit it. Haven't managed to get a grinder yet so that was really as far as I could go with the gearbox until I manage to borrow one.

Was out at a client on friday so not in the factory but when I came in on Saturday I found this on the spoiler Will be having a word tomorrow with the lads in the factory to remind them the spoiler isn't a tea tray


I also noticed a few very fine cracks on the grill i'd primered last week, these were there before I applied the primer. I had hoped that the primer would cover them as they were only thin but unfortunately it didn't so I had to sand the primer off and apply a bit of filler before re-applying some more primer


After re-primering


I received the twin lense headlights I had bought on Thursday, after unpacking them on Saturday I found that one of the glass lenses had been smashed in transit Luckily the breakers where I got the gearbox from had some units on the shelf so I acquired another drivers side unit



Test fitting the lights


While trying the lights for fit they wouldn't go in enough due to the radiator fouling the main beam lenses


I don't know what the radiator is from but luckily the solution was quite simple, I just needed to drop the radiator 20mm on it's mounting brackets so the light units could slide in far enough. You can see how much I needed to drop it here


Before going to the factory on Sunday I bought a few cans of Hammerite straight to rust silver spraypaint for the interior, it seemed a damn sight easier than having to primer and paint all inside. Hopefully it will be harder wearing too and isn't too bad a colour match tbh. Took me 2 hours with a wire brush, wire wool and a hoover to get all the loose bits out before I felt ready to start spraying!

Before spraying






After 1 coat!






Even after just one coat (It took all of the 3 cans I had bought!) I reckon it looks miles better
It's no where near concourse but it's not a concourse car
I'll do a second coat tomorrow night and then a third coat just on the areas that will take most stick such as the footwells.

Bits I would still like to do (after fitting the gearbox):

Fit another back bumper as the current one has a big crack held together with rivets


Get another bootlid because the current one has the lock cut out for some reason


The front bumper should hopefully be being sprayed this week. I've had to take that to a mate who's a sprayer by trade as it has a few splits in it and I want them sorted properly

Also need to service the engine and fit a new vacuum advance unit to the dizzy as the current one doesn;t work!! These are £50 new on Ebay so need to trace a good servicable one from a Range Rover scrappers.

After this little lot it should hopefully be somewhere near ready for the MOT on May 19th!!

Mr RS500

iTrader: (6)

keep the piccs coming

GUZZLER

iTrader: (3)

fair play, sometimes its just as enjoying to work on your car as it to drive it

ital_cossie

iTrader: (2)

keep up with updates!!
nice project!

vroooom ptssssh

Nice project, coming on very well

N1C4T3N

gr8 project m8 wish i had that amount of space lol keep us updated

Da Booga

Quick update as not updated for a while.

Progress been slow as now left the business where the car was kept due to differences with the other director. The car is now back home on the drive. Finally got the new 'box in on Tuesday & just need to fill it with oil before putting the anti-roll bar & exhaust on then rebuild the front end.

Should hopefully be running within a week. Will post some piccies soon.

Nick C

Looking good mate, looking forward to the updates

Munch

cool project mate, looking good, keep us updated